The Jackson Junge Gallery is a remarkable contribution to the flourishing arts community of Wicker Park / Bucktown in Chicago. Co-owned by the talented Chicago artist Laura Lee Junge and her husband / partner Chris Jackson, this gallery serves as an exclusive local venue for Junge’s captivating paintings and other exquisite works of art.
Before the gallery’s opening in the fall of 2009, Junge’s artwork was only available for limited viewing at her studio, seasonal art fairs, and through distributors outside of Chicago. Since then, the gallery has introduced Chicagoans to a dynamic hometown talent who has gained significant international recognition from art lovers and critics alike. While the spotlight shines on Junge, the gallery also showcases a diverse selection of works by other contemporary artists from Chicago and beyond.
Throughout the year, guest artist exhibits are hosted, adding to the variety of art on display. Located on a bustling section of Milwaukee Ave. just north of Division St. and south of North Ave., the Jackson Junge Gallery draws a diverse clientele. From the avid art collector to the casual admirer, visitors delight in the comfortable ambiance and welcoming atmosphere found within its walls.
In an effort to make art accessible to a wider audience, the gallery offers exceptional quality giclee reproductions and prints for purchase, alongside original pieces. The use of sophisticated technology ensures the production of superior quality prints. Furthermore, all Junge giclees are created in-house at the Jackson Junge Gallery and are subject to the artist’s personal inspection.
The Jackson Junge Gallery also provides a comprehensive range of custom framing services on-site. With the guidance of skilled craftsman and gallery co-owner Chris Jackson, customers can find the perfect mount, protection, and frame for their art, photography, and other treasured possessions. At the Jackson Junge Gallery, our mission is to create a dynamic cultural hub that celebrates the diversity of artistic expression.
We believe that art is an essential part of the human experience, and we are committed to bringing the joy and inspiration of the arts to everyone who visits our gallery. Our goal is to provide an all-encompassing experience for our visitors, by combining all the services typically associated with an art gallery in an innovative and immersive way. From showcasing a wide range of contemporary art in various mediums to providing custom framing services, we strive to create a welcoming and engaging environment where visitors can connect with art on a personal level.
We are passionate about promoting emerging and established artists, and we take pride in featuring work that pushes the boundaries of traditional art forms. We believe that the arts are an essential part of any community, and we are committed to building lasting relationships with our collectors and artists to promote the growth and development of the arts community in Wicker Park / Bucktown and beyond.
At the Jackson Junge Gallery, accessibility is a core value. We believe that everyone should have the opportunity to experience the transformative power of art, regardless of their budget. That’s why we offer a wide range of price points and exceptional Giclee reproductions and prints in addition to original pieces. We see ourselves as a partner in the arts community, working collaboratively with artists to showcase their work and connect them with art enthusiasts and collectors who appreciate their unique vision. When visitors step into the Jackson Junge Gallery, we hope they feel inspired, engaged, and transported by the magic of the arts.
Image: Gallery view
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In an era defined by technological acceleration, Swisher’s work explores the intersection of memory, materiality, and machine intelligence. By prompting generated images through the uploading of personal photos and descriptions of memories, she creates familiar yet digitally fabricated scenes that are then painted with oil onto thrifted fabric. The pieces serve as a collage of old & new, with the reference locations being a blend of real and falsified spaces. Her work brings digital recollection into physical form and navigates contemporary paradoxes.
While Sydney Swisher has amassed an incredible fan base online, with over 5 million likes on her videos and almost 600k followers across social media platforms, THREADS OF MEMORY is only the second physical solo exhibition of Swisher’s work. The reception she’s gotten online is more than she ever imagined. A self-taught painter from a small, rural town in southern Illinois, Swisher has found success as a corporate graphic designer. As a result of her career, Swisher is focused on how machine intelligence is coming into our digital space and warping the human narrative, which inspired her to explore generative AI as a tool in the creative process. AI is not the core of her work, but a part of it, used specifically to explore themes of memory, nostalgia, and the blurred line between real and imagined. Her goal is to create \"amalgamated\" places that don’t exist, but which speak to collective memory.
Swisher starts with a nostalgic memory or the feeling of a vaguely familiar place. She then gathers personal and found images from thrift stores, her own photography, or her family film photo collection. She feeds her references into AI (Midjourney) to generate blended visuals that feel like memories more than literal depictions. Swisher’s painting “If It Comes to You, It Means Something” gives a peek at a dated living room drenched in mauve, the view seemingly dissolving into a vintage floral-patterned piece of fabric. One of the most personally nostalgic scenes Swishers created, she remembers the painting “was inspired by the home I was raised in until the age of 4. Although this is not the exact living room, and I don't have a good image of the room, this is how I remember it through my childhood memories. I feel that the younger the memory, the more vividly I see the scene.” After generating an AI image from photos and memories, Swisher further refines it in Photoshop to create her reference. She includes these elements into her physical paintings, creating a hybrid of digital and traditional media. Swisher elegantly makes the transition from an intricate digital process to an intense art form requiring a high degree of technical skill, oil painting. Her painting “Nonviolent Misbehavior” highlights her skill with the medium, capturing subtle shifts in shadow as light bounces around a chandelier painted in oil.
Swisher also incorporates thrifted materials into her paintings to further bridge the digital and real. Adding physical objects like blankets, curtains, and crafts that once belonged to someone adds a further connection to a personal past, while creating a new collective narrative around the items. Swisher’s painting “When You and It Are Aligned” depicts a kitchen workspace warmly lit by a flood of sunshine streaming through a window. Swisher delicately sewed a cloth to sit on the table and lace into the window dressings of the painting to pay homage to the details of our cherished daily possessions. Reflecting on the evolution of this collection, Swisher said “I continued to try to make these pieces more sculptural, with sewn-in pieces ‘spilling out’ of the canvas. I would like to continue to challenge myself in this way to create memories that seem to be ‘reaching out’ into our current reality. Making this transition seamless is pretty difficult, but I appreciate the challenge and hope to continue to push the work in this direction.” Swisher’s “The Good of It” features an actual lampshade jutting out from the canvas where a familiar still life is painted of an armchair, side table and lamp.
Swisher’s work is a commentary on authorship and influence. While prompted by her own memories and images, she does appropriate fragments from strangers, blending them into new narratives. There is a parallel between AI and the natural artistic process - both involve borrowing, remixing, and reinterpreting pieces of existing work. Swisher believes “creativity has always been about taking fragments of your influences and fragments of the past and creating something that's a new story that's authentic and unique to you.” While AI can enhance creativity, Swisher thinks artists, unlike machines, add emotional depth and personal narratives to their work. Her goal is to create work that feels authentic, even if built from fragmented, artificial sources.
For Sydney, “this collection is an amalgamation of years of my interests through my life. It incorporated my love of crafting, photography, technology, painting, and mixed media.” While all the pieces Swisher created for THREADS OF MEMORY start at an attempt to re-create her own personal memory, she sees them as a tapestry woven together with threads of memory from many individuals. Scenes that are specific to no one, but evoke collective nostalgia and probe the evolving nature of human experience in the digital age. They allow us to step into a familiar time, to experience a sense of warmth and comfort that is often associated with home, to have a deeper appreciation for the complexity of our unique history, and to question our future direction in a world filled with fabricated images of the past.
THREADS OF MEMORY will be on view at Jackson Junge Gallery September 22nd – November 2nd, 2025. The gallery will be holding the exhibition’s opening reception on Friday, September 26th, from 6 pm - 9 pm. The event is free and open to the public. The exhibition is curated by Owner Chris Jackson, Gallery Director Kaitlyn Miller and Assistant Gallery Director Kristen Arcus.
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